March 29, 2024

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The Mobile Phone Evolution

When Alexander Graham Bell made the first call through his invention, he must have been the happiest man, that moment. Soon it was possible to span great distances and efficiently pass messages or even better exchange information. This was soon to be improved to include more than just voice, but also data. This has later been more enhanced by the speedy growth of the world wide web (WWW); information is today very easily transferred in all manner of formats and in great speeds from person to person or business to business across the world.

In a similar manner, the walkie talkie was a great innovation and it really made things easy, especially for businesses, corporations and even the disciplined forces. Finally, at least until now, came the mobile phone. A gadget that can in all ways be viewed as among the most common gadget in the modern living. At the beginning, this started as just that, a telephone that one can move around with. It was, of course, very bulky in the beginning but with time, this has slowly by slowly become more manageable and especially efficient. Better ways for networking and transmission have been greatly enhanced. It is easier and much cheaper to communicate across the world. At this point, the term “mobile phone” is fully defined and the expectations fulfilled. But are we there already?

Today there are scores of electronics companies competing for customers for their mobile phones. What is peculiar with this current competition is the kind of edge that everyone is trying to cut against the competitors. It is no longer about clarity or size or battery life! Today, internet capability is more important to most customers, especially the bigger young generation, than calling capabilities. This internet has also grown from strength to strength. We are now at the fourth generation (4G) of mobile internet evolution and there is no sign of stopping. It is no longer just about text messaging, Instant Messaging (IM) and video conferencing is what really scores here. Multimedia messaging (MMS) is important and hence a capability not very alien in the modern world of mobile telephony. But it is not just about sending and receiving, it also has to do with the creation, editing and storage of such. This makes the mobile phone more than just what it is meant to be…it is a mobile computer, a mobile information centre! Just the other day I sought the shortest route through town on my phone’s Google earth application. Not to mention the great companionship I have found with the social media applications. This is my modern entertainment centre. You see with the fast paced modern life, I rarely find time on a coach in my living room to catch that latest movie, or breaking news. But with my mobile phone in hand, I really miss none of that.